This happened in Boston some years ago when the non-NPR classical station decided to
stop carrying the broadcasts. Luckily we had another station that grabbed them up - and
that turned out to be a very good decision overall.
At least it *is* possible to listen to other stations that stream on the web (and there are
plenty), in addition to Sirius, which carries the Saturday broadcasts as well as the
weeknight ones. A few radio stations around the globe also stream the Met broadcasts at
delayed times (from a few hours later to a few weeks later). It's not quite like the old days
when we all depended entirely on our FM radios.
I do hope, though, that another station in Dallas will step up to the plate.
On Sun, 4 Dec 2016 18:07:41 -0600, gordon young <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>This evening I received a post from WRR. Lubbock and other towns smaller
>than Dallas can afford the broadcasts but....
>
>Mr. Young:
>
>
>Thank you for your note and for being a WRR listener.
>
>
>I wanted to take a few minutes to fill you in on the status of the
>Metropolitan Opera broadcasts on WRR. As you know, WRR has carried these
>broadcasts for many years and, like yourself, I'm a big fan of opera and I
>understand that any decision on carrying the Met is extremely important to
>some of our listeners.
>
>
>That said, there are two things that all of us at WRR are dedicated to in
>all that we do: 1) Working to increase the audience for classical music
>and 2) operating in a financially sound manner so that we can continue to
>bring classical music to the people of North Texas. We
>take the responsibility of providing "Classical music and the arts for
>North Texas" very seriously and never do anything without carefully
>considering the effect on the two items I just mentioned.
>
>
>The fact is, the Met broadcasts cost us dearly, both in lost audience and
>lost revenue.
>
>
>During the weeks that we carry the Met, we lose about 40% of our Saturday
>afternoon audience...a disastrous falloff in listenership and one of the
>barriers to our growing our overall audience. We have promoted these
>broadcasts heavily on air, via email blasts, permanent ads on our web site
>and more. Nothing has increased the audience for these programs over the
>past couple of years.
>
>
>Also, WRR loses as many as 32 minutes of spot time during a four hour
>broadcast. This is time that we would normally sell to our clients and
>thus bring in additional revenues for the station. In the past, the Met
>paid WRR a fee for carrying the performances as partial compensation for
>lost revenues. They discontinued this two years ago. We discussed their
>reinstating these payments for this year and were told that they had no
>budget for doing so and that, if WRR didn't carry the broadcasts, listeners
>had the alternative to get the performances on the internet stream. They
>did not seem overly concerned to lose broadcast coverage in the fifth
>largest media market in the nation.
>
>
>In addition, we have worked for the past two years to find sponsors who
>would replaced the revenue we lose when carrying the Met. No clients have
>been willing to sponsor these performances in a significant enough way to
>cover the lost revenue costs and compensate for the loss of audience.
>
>
>The bottom line is the Met broadcasts cost us listeners and costs us
>revenue. No broadcaster can continue to support programming that is
>hurting the station and WRR is no exception. We've searched for two years
>for a way to grow the audience for the Met and sell the show to potential
>advertisers, with no success on either front. We can no longer air a
>program that is such a drag on station audience and revenues.
>
>
>We hope you understand and that you will continue to enjoy the hours of
>classical music WRR provides. We're fortunate in North Texas to have a
>station like WRR and I can promise you we will do all we can to keep this
>station an enjoyable, uplifting classical broadcast resource for our area.
>
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